Why Keita's Rise Could Mean Yaya's and Henry's Fall, and, The Defensive Quandary Against Atletico

Once upon a time, this man was a hot property. He made his name at Lorient at the beginning of the decade, and became one of the most-wanted players in France. He moved to Lens and became their captain, scoring 19 goals in 156 Ligue 1 appearances, wearing the #10 shirt. In 2007, Sevilla moved west to Spain and helped (along with one Dani Alves) Sevilla become a Champion's League side, forming half of the most-feared center-midfield in the land. He turned out to be one of the best players to ever come out of his home country, Mali.

Last year, he came to Barcelona as Pep Guardiola's first signing and...sat on the bench. None of us thought too much of him, as his underwhelming performances showed little in the way of anything useful. With Yaya, Xavi, and Iniesta already on the roster, he seemed to many, including myself, to be something of a mismatch. He chased after the play, made a few passes, scored an occasional goal, but looked like nothing more than a squad player.

Boy, was I wrong. This season has seen the emergence of Barcelona's #15, the Real Seydou Keita. This man may be one of the most well-rounded players on the team. He is big and physical, able to make a ton of great stops, with a great defensive awareness. At the same time, he is deceptively fast, very good at popping up at the right moments to link the midfield to the attack, can make very good supporting passes, and can crash the box, loving to score goals, whether by getting his head on the end of crosses, or by rifling shots from around the box.

Some people may be laughing about this last one, pointing to his misses against Getafe and saying it was a so-so game from him overall, but I disagree. Misses aside, with eleven men, Keita was a tremendous part of the attack. He made Xavi and Iniesta look better with run-after-supporting-run, crashed the box to give our engine-room Spaniards more room to work, all while busting his gut to track back and forth to provide defensive cover. This man was a box-to-box threat, making everyone around him look a little better. His job got even more thankless after Pique went off, even though he showed off his greatest asset until the end: his versatility. Play on the left wing? No problem. Misses or no misses, this man was brilliant.

And as the times change, some facts are growing more apparent. First, Guardiola brought this particular player into the team as his first signing to become a regular first-teamer, and an essential part of the midfield. Second, Guardiola did this to replace two players he did not sign: Thierry Henry and Toure Yaya.

This hypothesis pains me, really, because these are two of my favorite players IN THE WORLD, not only for Barcelona. Henry's were some of the first soccer highlights I ever saw, and perhaps the primary reason I follow both Barcelona and Arsenal as a fan. Though I never saw him in his prime, I fell in love with his class. Yaya, meanwhile, may be the most underrated player I know. He was so valuable to the team last year that it was flabbergasting how few times I heard his name. Even more bewildering--and somewhat hurtful--is the fact that he has so fewer appearances this season. Less surprising, but still painful, is the increasing absence of Thierry Henry from the lineup.

But facts are facts: both players are seemingly being phased out, and I believe this is all according to Pep's plans. Henry and Yaya will leave in exchange for a nice transfer fee, and primarily it will be Keita to take their place. The lineup of the near future is: Valdes, Alves, Puyol, Pique, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Keita, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Iniesta.

Let's look at the individual attributes and roles in the team. Henry, after playing a pivotal role as goal-scorer, winger, and forward last season, has essentially played as a pure winger rather than any kind of a striker this season, a "defensive forward" whose value to the team is more in the tracking back than in the creating chances. Keita, sighted more and more on the left than in the middle, can do the defensive job, while occasionally coming forward to score goals. Interesting stat: last year, Henry scored 19 league goals. In his best year with Lens, Keita, as a DM, scored...you guessed it...19 league goals. But mainly, he will allow Iniesta to go forward and learn to score goals, as he (mark my word) emerges as the best midfielder in the world. Let's face it: Henry is not getting any younger, and very well may be retiring soon, given his complaints about playing in pain most games. It's sad to see, really, but it is a quite creative way to replace Monsieur Titi on Pep's part.

Yaya, meanwhile, has also played the role of versatility. Huge and intimidating without being the most physical player, Yaya has played as a center-half and defensive-midfielder in his tenure with Barcelona, but before he came, he was an attacking midfielder in France, and continues to play that role for the Ivory Coast. Being as big as he is and playing in the position he plays in, his top-class passing ability and intelligence with regards to what to do with the ball and where to be on the field is often underrated. He may be one of the calmest presences I've ever seen on the pitch. This year, however, he has also been phased out by a combination of Keita and Busquets. Pep's plan, it seems, is to replace Yaya's physicality and positioning with Keita's. The still-young Busquets, occupying Yaya's DM role, is apparently being trained by Pep to become a better passer and more intelligent playmaker. Thus, in tandem, the two could form quite a mighty double-pivot that would more-than replace Yaya, who at least I will still miss.

It seems strange to occupy two roster spots with one very good player, especially when that player's replacing two other very good players in very different positions. It sounds so crazy, it just might work. What's more, the pay-off of allowing Iniesta and Xavi to stay at the front-end of the field more often is just scary. Teams will have to roll out five defenders, or two goalkeepers, or something. Once Iniesta starts scoring goals--once IBRAHIMOVIC starts scoring goals--knowing they're safe at the back, the floodgates might never close.

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The team could use a good defensive double-pivot right now, because this week has seen more injuries than at any time, perhaps, in two years--and they're all in the defense. Alves continues to be out, but added to that list is Txigrinskiy, who is definitely out for this match but might be back for the next, and Abidal, who, out for two months, becomes a potentially very-consequential injury-blow, especially ahead of the Champion's League Round of 16. What's worse, Marquez and Pique, having been sent off against Getafe, are of course suspended, and Puyol and Iniesta are both feared to have knocks that *might* keep them out against Atletico.

This could put an end to our great defensive record, if not to our unbeaten record in La Liga. At least in terms of the next match, the Puyol and Iniesta blows could be the worst. Without our defensive captain, the defense will be counting on stellar performances from Gaby Milito--the man formerly known as "no-knees"--and a canterano. Without Iniesta, only Xavi and the maybe-good, maybe-not (at this point) Busquets will be shielding our defense from an onslaught from Kun Aguero and Diego Forlan.

So Pep is calling in the canteranos. The buzz-names are Marc Muniesa and Dalmau--I don't know his first name...that cannot be good. Muniesa is tipped as the future Puyol, though in the only appearance with the first team I can remember, he earned a red card against Osasuna (?). Admittedly, it was a good performance off-the-bench until then. Dalmau, I know nothing about, but at least he is a natural right back, so at least if he plays, he will not do so out of position. Some rumors are surrounding a second appearance for a recently-resigned and first-team-numbered Jeffren (#20) at right-fullback, but his first appearance was against Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey, and it was only 45 minutes before Guardiola admitted that he was asking for a right-raping down that side. I will be praying for Puyol to play, which he might. I don't know if I'd rather see him on the right or in the middle, but thank God he can play both.

On the bright side, Maxwell and Milito, though they still have some question marks around them, are coming off good performances. It may be a good chance to see the Keita-Busquets double pivot in action, and the future for that, to me, looks bright. If Muniesa plays, he might play well and live up to the very, very high expectations that hardcore canterano-enthusiasts have of him. And, of course, we have Xavi, Messi, and Ibrahimovic almost definitely playing. Add Henry to that mix and that's one dangerous offense. Atletico games are always one of the great match-ups in La Liga, always unpredictable, and it should be a great watch, especially since Atletico is a basket-case club at the moment. Who knows, it could be a thrashing in our favor. On the other hand, it could be a Kun Aguero hat-trick.

Barcelona 2-1 Getafe, or, Style and Discipline

How does one describe this match? I would begin by saying that it was curious. The result for this match was one of those results that does not even come close to describing the game. It was one of those rare matches in which Barca saw red, made even rarer by the fact that not one, but two Barca players saw red. The starting lineup was unusual for a few reasons, as were the tactics that, even before we went down to ten men, indicated a visible change from the usual 433 with wide wing-forwards.

But most curious is that despite all this, Barcelona absolutely dominated this game, and Getafe never even came close to taking any points. The boys lost two men by the end of the game against a team renowned for taking advantage of weakened teams, but still created the best chances and absolutely shut the door on anything Getafe developed. The second-string left fullback was playing on the right, while the captain was suspended, and a man playing only his second or third game after more than 18 months on the treatment table. They lost the stronger center-defender in the first half, and so the defensive midfielder moved into his place, while the other more defensive-minded midfielder moved....to the left wing. All this, and the players were playing into an unfamiliar system that has been evolving over the last several weeks and is now becoming more clear. And with all this unsettlement of personnel and tactical confusion, almost everybody played superbly. The game may have ended with Barca down to nine men and only one goal up, but it could have ended with a clean sheet and four or five in the back of Getafe's net.

Now, I am not a fan of selecting a "man of the match", and I do not want to set a precedent for future posts on this blog. In particular, I think it is poor to choose one man that purportedly shined head-and-shoulders above the rest and made "the" difference to describe matches such as this, when half the team could deserve such an honor. But in this case, it is clear that one man made "that" difference: Pep Guardiola.

The manager was quick to shower praise on his team after the match for playing one of the best matches he's seen him play, and they deserve every bit of it--but everything about this match takes a qualitative nosedive without the tactical brilliance of Pep, and the workman-like discipline that he instilled in his players.

Pep's domination of this game began with the lineup. A number of personnel complications confronted him in choosing this lineup. Puyol was suspended, Busquets was just recovering from a bruised kidney, and just before the match, a perhaps-less-than-fit Alves went down with what was probably an aggravation of a previous injury in the warm-up (perhaps the first mistake this wonderful physical staff has made in two years). Pep made some bold changes.

When I looked at the full lineup--Valdes, Maxwell, Pique, Milito, Abidal, Yaya, Xavi, Keita, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Iniesta--I thought I knew the rationale. Unpredictable, somewhat makeshift defense; more physical midfield. Yaya popped back into the lineup to provide stability, calm, and extra physicality, and Keita could make his usual great stops just ahead of Milito, where we might need it most. That said, one had to ask--why Milito? Why not Txigrinskiy, a tested option, instead of a man who is just back from a year-and-a-half of injury? How would Maxwell, a natural left-fullback, work out on the right? How much is Guardiola rolling the dice?

As it turned out, we needn't have worried about our "makeshift" defense, because the whole team came out and showed its class. With eleven men, the team was an unstoppable unit. Xavi and Iniesta were at their very best at the heart of the midfield, pulling strings and distributing to the open man, wherever he was on the field. Iniesta, who was especially on fire, cross-field balls were particularly superb. Whenever they needed a valve, the likes of Yaya, Keita, and Abidal were there. While Abidal and Yaya played more like "devolvers," setting up as safety outlets and forcing Getafe to come back into our half for a moment before allowing Xavi and Iniesta to run rampage once again, Keita played like a cutting knife--almost always unmarked on the left and ready to pass forward before crashing the box. For me, this was a crucial part of the possession game that Getafe did not have an answer for.

What made the team that much more unplayable was the fact that Messi was having one of his best games all year. This was patient Messi, Messi the team-player. When his man was on him, Messi would receive the ball, and pass it right back. When left with just a teensy bit more space, Messi punished Getafe. He passed more, and shot less--but all his shots could have been goals, something you can't say about his typical game of late. And what a golazo! Xavi, after having earned a corner from a rather unusual long-shot deflected wide, crosses the ball into the box and finds Yaya. I missed this guy's physical presence so, so much all January when he was in Africa. Though his header is rather wayward, he latches right back onto it, practically unchallenged, and lays it off for Messi, running along the outside the box. As if he was taking a free-kick, he whacks it with the side of his left foot, and the ball curls around three Getafe players--at least three, and not counting Barca teammates--before whizzing in at the bottom of the near-side of the goal. Class, class, class.

And Getafe never really recovered, because Barca continued to dominate. The defense, when called on, proved that the likes of Milito and Maxwell are world-class players, if there was any doubt. Maxwell played his best game in the colors, out of position, while Milito came back with a fiery vengeance. Milito's pairing with Pique was well-chosen by the manager, because the two complement one another. Pique, Marquez, and Txigrinskiy all fit the mold of the long-passing, tall, positionally-sound "rock", while Puyol and Milito are smaller (well, a little), faster, more adventurous, and both have suave, long-and-curly hair. Thus, there was a great balance to the center of the defense, and Milito made quite the leader. Maxwell played like the player I was looking forward to, watching the highlights of him at Inter and Ajax and seeing an attacking flare-player of a fullback. Though defensively he left a bit more space for wingers than I would like (then again, does Dani Alves not do that every time he comes onto the field), with the ball at his feet he could beat his man, cross the ball, pick out tight passes, and make intelligent runs. See his play of the game--Maxwell intercepts the ball somewhat centrally and, in the same motion, sprints off on a counter-attack. He gives it to Messi, who cuts further infield, and continues his run. When Messi gives it back, Maxwell stylishly back-heels the ball into space, which Messi occupies and passes the ball to Ibrahimovic. Ibra's return pass is inch-perfect inside the box--one of his only throughout the match, unfortunately, as he was rather poor for me--and Messi right-foots it to the far post, thinking he has the keeper moving to the near, but the goal is saved, I believe, with the keeper's right foot. It would've been the best goal of the year, but it was not to be. That said, unlike Dani Alves, Maxwell definitely does not track back as quickly when caught out--luckily, Messi was playing an inspired defensive game, with an enormous amount of take-backs for a forward.

So, just about everyone was playing well, but that was not why we dominated the game, and not why Pep Guardiola is man of the match. I have never, ever seen an entire team track back in defense as quickly and cohesively as Barca did in this game. It was clear when the team was playing full-strength, and became even more mightily impressive when they went a man-down. Because soon enough, the most off-key play from our most off-key players occurred. After one of the few scrambles around our box came under control, the ball came to Ibra, and he made a disastrous back-pass, back into his own box. Yaya was the nearest player, but was not quite prepared for it, and missed the ball. Eventually the shuffle centered around Pique, who through a forest of legs tried to control the ball, but in the end made about as rash a slide-tackle as you will see in La Liga, and earned himself a red. It was not a bad match from him at all, but a few poor passes--about as much as he had to do through his about 25 minutes on the field--combined with that tackle to put this individual performance into the "forgettable" bin.

Pep responded with an inspired move--he made no substitutions at all. This brings me to a subtle tactical change that Pep has instituted in recent games, and is just starting to become clear, a change that will strongly effect the future of the team's play and its personnel. Game by game, the team is seemingly moving away from the traditional 433 and toward a more-unorthodox 433 that resembles a scrambled 442. In this, the wing-forwards occupy a slightly different role. Iniesta plays deeper and more centrally, almost alongside Xavi, with Yaya slightly behind, though he still has freedom to go forward. Keita, in his stead, drifts further wide and gains a larger attacking role. It looks like our regular starting lineup, in that Xavi and Iniesta are paired in the midfield, but Keita's presence makes it ostensibly a four-man midfield that overwhelmed Getafe, as if the three-man midfield of Xavi, Iniesta, and Yaya was not overwhelming enough. Meanwhile, Messi alternates between playing close to the right wing and dropping centrally as a link between the midfield and Ibrahimovic. When reduced to ten men, Yaya took Pique's place at the back, and the team resembled a 442 (well, 441) even more--Messi stayed closer to the right, slightly advanced, and Keita became essentially a left-winger.

So how did it play out? Through the rest of the first half, Getafe stretched the field wide-left and wide-right as the boys struggled to adjust. This was effective in that Barca lost ground in the possession stats, but Getafe could not break through. Why? The five men ahead of the defenders started to play a super-human game in defense. The team never got caught on breaks, and when they did, everyone tracked back faster than Getafe could advance. Messi could be found in a full-sprint chasing down attackers, while Keita added some mighty steel, and Iniesta and Xavi did an excellent job of occupying space and blocking passes. And none of these guys are defenders--though Abidal played a rather poorer match overall than usual with some uncharacteristically loose short passes (mind you, his standard is very high, having been the best defender of the season, in my opinion), his chasing-down of attackers and last-ditch tackles were as superb as always, and Milito played a stellar match, looking like the smart and effective veteran defender he really is.

In the second half, it got so that it looked like eleven men, and the boys began to even out the possession and, really, become the more dangerous side, because of two important substitutions that could not have been better-timed. First, Busquets came on for Ibrahimovic. Now, Ibrahimovic, for me, was very poor. All I saw was poor passing, and a glorious one-on-one chance that he missed. I was very surprised, however, to hear that Guardiola called him "scandalously good", and that many other watchers thought he was excellent as well. So I watched again and I saw...a ton of poor passes and a poorly missed one-on-one chance. I paid more attention to his running, how sometimes he opened up space for the midfield, how he tracked back on defense (though not too as great effect as most of his teammates), trying to figure out other subtle intangibles of his game, but I can't bring myself to change my mind. If I had to pick the poorest player on the field, it would have to be Ibrahimovic. His departure made an enormous difference. Busquets came on and, like Maxwell, delivered one of his best performances ever. He never surrendered possession through bad passes or getting caught on the ball--as is his wont--and whenever Getafe had the ball in the midfield, he was right in front of the attacker. See the play when he squared up against Boateng. Busquets was right in his face as soon as he got the ball, turning him one way, then the other, then back around again, before forcing him to dish the ball off back to his defense--that play became a turnover, right around where Busquets made that initial pressure.

More importantly, that sub, in one stroke, fine-tuned the tactics. Keita became a solid left-winger. Xavi and Iniesta were separated, in a sense--Xavi was pushed forward, while Iniesta became the heart-of-the-team that Xavi usually plays as. And dare I say two things: first, that Xavi and Iniesta played better in the second half despite the man-disadvantage, but second, that Iniesta is starting--just starting--to overshadow his counterpart. I just thought of the cross-field balls Iniesta was always making--the kind Xavi made (was told to make?) last year. While Iniesta became a one-man show in the midfield, stylishly beating players, tricking his way around them, turning them, and dishing the ball off when he attracted them, and deservedly earning a round of applause when subbed off for Pedro as a time-waster, Xavi became a special reserve and the world's best supporting actor. He had fewer touches of the ball further forward, his touches were brilliant. The key change with Ibra off was that Messi took his place leading the line. The man was superb, and looked his best in this period.

The second change was Yaya for Marquez. Yaya, in his first game back after the African Cup of Nations, played a rather average match that showed some rust. His positional awareness and calm on and off the ball was unmatched as usual, but his execution was off at times, as he fouled one-too-many players, passed waywardly here and there, and in general wasn't quite as controlling. See the play when Iniesta passed to him in the first half, but he missed the ball, having to chase down a Getafe player before earning it back. It was a poor play to begin with, but the way he ended it--rumbling after his man and fighting him off the ball--was Yaya as I know and love him. Some good, some bad for him. Marquez, however, seems to be playing himself into quite a bit of form: he made some great stops, and a few great passes, including the pass that began the second goal. Xavi received that one in the center-circle, in a two-on-four situation. Luckily, the other one of the Barcelona "two" was one Lionel Messi. Messi received on the right and went off to the races, dragging the left-back central, while Xavi ran a cross-route with his teammate to the right. All four Getafe defenders were guilty of following Messi--knowing he would shoot, as is his reputation--but instead, Messi did the right thing and dished it to Xavi, who stayed onside and rocketed the ball into the goal.

The best chances came in the second half, and they all could have been goals had there been a better finish. In one of Ibra's best moments, he crossed the ball for what could have been a Xavi goal. Messi orchestrated two chances with fabulous runs from the right. In one, he passed it to Xavi, but I thought he passed it to Iniesta, so brilliant was Xavi's drag-back to his twin (I literally had to watch it a second time). Iniesta passed it to a sprinting Keita, who did the hard part by cutting it back, but committed perhaps the worst miss I'd ever seen, when he could have finished far-side or dished it to a sprinting Messi at point-blank range. Soon afterward, his pass entered glorious space in the box that Iniesta and Keita had a "no, you" moment about, and Keita rushed the chance for a more-forgiveable miss. Iniesta made a brilliant run from the middle of the field, dribbling past everyone, for a bad miss directly outside the box (he could have dished it to an open-and-sprinting Abidal). Getafe, meanwhile, created nothing. Why? Because all the while, Barca players were sprinting back and fighting the ball off of them. No Barca defender was left in danger, and no Getafe attacker was left unharried--such is Pep Guardiola's prowess as the best manager in the world. And when he needed to, Valdes, "the Wombat," the unsung hero that I, unfortunately, write so little about, made two or three fine saves.

Why even talk about the penalty? It was a clear penalty, for me, and a clear red card that ruined Marquez' otherwise excellent match. It skewed the face of the match. Again, this could have been a trouncing in result as well as in run-of-play. I will settle for the run-of-play trouncing, because I know that when Ibra integrates himself into the lineup better, and when the team adjusts totally to the new tactics, those chances won't be left missed.

Please let me know what you all thought of the match. I have realized, in writing, the error of my writing--I write too long. I assure you that I will work on this--I am new to blogging--but in any case I hope you all found this insightful.

The next victim is Atletico Madrid.